Chart 55: Major developments by planning authority and
development type, 2015/16
1

1. The number in brackets gives the total number of major
development decisions by planning authority (excluding processing
agreements). See
Section
2 for further details of processing agreements.

The chart shows information on the case mix for each planning
authority, ordered by housing followed by other developments. Note
that numbers of decisions made for major developments are very
small at planning authority level. Glasgow made the most decisions
(31) for major planning applications with 12 for housing, 14 for
other major developments, 4 for business and industry and 1 for
waste management developments. In addition Glasgow used processing
agreements for a further two major developments. Edinburgh used
processing agreements (18) for the majority of their major
development decisions and when these are included Edinburgh made 31
decisions overall on major developments.

13.2 Major Developments - average decision times,
2015/16

The following charts shows the average decision times for major
developments ordered by the number of decisions made for major
developments in each planning authority. In total there were 267
decisions made on major developments in 2015/16 with an overall
average decision time of 30.5 weeks. A further 83 major
developments that were subject to a processing agreement are not
included in these average decision times.

Chart 56: Major developments by planning authority,
2015/16: Number of decisions

Chart 57: Major developments by planning authority,
2015/16: Average decision time (weeks)

Numbers of decisions made for major developments are very small
compared to those for local developments and the average decision
times at local authority level are likely to be volatile. The case
mix also has an influence on average decision times. The lengthy
average time for major developments in Falkirk was due to one major
development for a residential and mixed use phased development,
including up to 1,500 residential units, community and enterprise
facilities, transport and environmental infrastructure and
employment space.

Cairngorms National Park, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National
Park and Na h-Eileanan Siar did not make any decisions for major
developments in 2015/16 and are therefore not included in the
charts in this section.

The following table is an extract from
Annual,
2015/16: Table 2 and allows comparison of the average decision
times for major applications between years.

Table 8: Major Applications: Average Decision
Time

Planning Authority

2012/13

2013/14

2014/15

2015/16

Total number of applications

Overall Average Time (weeks)

Total number of applications

Overall Average Time (weeks)

Total number of applications

Overall Average Time (weeks)

Total number of applications

Overall Average Time (weeks)

Aberdeen City

10

53.7

15

45.9

17

47.6

15

24.1

Aberdeenshire

12

41.5

23

53.9

24

89.7

14

60.2

Angus

4

33.3

5

30.1

8

31.1

6

22.0

Argyll & Bute

3

59.0

4

26.9

3

14.1

7

17.0

Cairngorms

0

-

0

-

4

61.4

0

-

Clackmannanshire

0

-

2

7.9

1

16.0

1

39.3

Dumfries & Galloway

15

34.9

18

53.0

8

20.6

7

31.6

Dundee City

3

23.7

6

12.5

6

13.1

7

12.5

East Ayrshire

5

39.5

4

44.9

5

61.2

5

64.4

East Dunbartonshire

4

13.5

3

19.4

6

32.3

3

41.8

East Lothian

4

20.7

6

43.5

12

28.1

9

26.6

East Renfrewshire

5

39.9

5

16.7

3

19.6

4

17.5

Edinburgh, City of

6

22.7

14

27.9

12

22.8

13

29.9

Falkirk

0

-

5

27.9

2

132.4

4

74.5

Fife

21

45.5

25

49.7

25

45.0

20

28.2

Glasgow City

34

38.2

35

27.5

28

24.1

31

24.9

Highland

15

26.1

13

31.6

8

24.9

15

20.6

Inverclyde

4

26.0

0

-

1

12.1

1

45.1

Loch Lomond

0

-

1

26.3

1

13.1

0

-

Midlothian

10

31.8

4

27.4

6

21.6

13

35.1

Moray

8

55.7

7

49.4

2

13.1

4

20.0

Na h-Eileanan Siar

0

-

1

44.9

2

28.5

0

-

North Ayrshire

6

34.1

6

19.8

5

12.6

5

26.7

North Lanarkshire

12

21.0

31

19.2

26

19.6

19

24.3

Orkney Islands

0

-

1

7.3

1

7.0

1

24.1

Perth & Kinross

9

14.2

11

39.2

12

41.7

6

14.8

Renfrewshire

10

36.6

10

14.0

4

10.1

5

13.3

Scottish Borders

10

60.8

8

53.3

8

30.9

2

27.6

Shetland Islands

0

-

3

14.0

5

23.5

3

11.9

South Ayrshire

3

21.6

6

26.4

8

26.0

5

42.6

South Lanarkshire

10

43.2

17

30.1

23

42.4

21

38.4

Stirling

3

14.9

6

30.5

3

43.3

5

26.4

West Dunbartonshire

2

19.2

4

32.4

7

19.8

5

24.6

West Lothian

10

38.7

11

44.7

12

45.3

11

49.0

SCOTLAND

238

36.3

310

34.6

298

36.6

267

30.5

Due to the small numbers of major applications, especially at
local authority level, average times are more variable. However,
Aberdeen City, Falkirk, Perth & Kinross and Shetland Islands
have all improved their overall average decision time by over 40%
compared to 2014/15.